It’s Christian. I hope you have been well. It has been a long time since we played together. I know those few hours in Morrowind weren’t too exciting, but I still appreciated how hard you tried. I also saw you play with some friends in Oblivion, and they all had a lot of fun.

That is why I am looking forward to our next play date. I hear you are bringing Fallout 3. I can’t wait. In case you didn’t know, Fallout is my favorite RPG series ever. I like it so much, I’d rather play them again and again than play some other RPGs for the first time. Still, I hope that we can have as much fun with Fallout 3. It shouldn’t be too hard, right Bethesda? All it needs is a twisted sense of humor and a staggering amount of freedom. Okay, so there’s a bit more than that, but those would be a great start. You should be able to make that, right?

I’m really hoping so. A lot of other kids say you won’t. That you just took Oblivion and added some more popsicle sticks and glue. I don’t want to believe them. I trust that you put a lot of hard work into it. I remember when you told everyone how much you love Fallout too. That wasn’t a lie, right?

Our playdate is tomorrow. I plan on getting up early. Please Bethesda, don’t let Fallout 3 suck. If it does, it might make me cry. My friends will make fun of me.

14 Comments

if reviews are any indication it seems like your playdate should go well. interested to hear your thoughts.

Tyson said on
October 28, 2008:

I have an awesome tin lunchbox with Fallout 3 in it in the back of my car at the moment. Tonight is going to be a good night.

TrueTallus said on
October 28, 2008:

I have to wait till the weekend to see weather my lunchbox is full of egg salad and carrot sticks or Doritos and club sandwiches. I’ve got my fingers crossed with you, Christian!

Christian said on
October 28, 2008:

I gots it.

I started around… 7:30 maybe? Just got out of the Vault a bit before 10?

Time has dilated during play. That’s the first sign of a Fallout game.

That’s all I can say so far.

Spyder Mayhem said on
October 29, 2008:

If you have decided, for some strange reason, to get the PS3 version, prepare to weep with me in the corner.

It is a beautiful trainwreck you will turn on. PS3’s messaging system causes the game to freeze. Since I am friendless, this is no big deal. But the other bug I am experiencing is a big deal. So far, my L2 and R2 buttons do not work. L2 is POV control, and I don’t mind First-person, so no loss there. R2 is VATS.

After three hours of playing Fallout, I haven’t even seen VATS go yet. I know I can remap, and eventually I will have to. It just makes me sad to think that I have to.

christian said on
October 29, 2008:

Hey Spyder –

Good news – I’m in the same boat as you! Let’s get through this together.

I heard about the freeze bug via the message system, which annoys me to all end, but for now I’ve just prevented PSN from logging me in at boot up, so I don’t get any messages. That’s okay, because I don’t want anyone to disturb Fallout.

The L2/R2 problem is not one I have seen. VATS and POV have been A-OK. Which controller are you using? I wonder if it is a Sixaxis/Dualshock thing? I’ll let you know if I dig anything up.

Tyson said on
October 29, 2008:

Well, I started playing the game at 7pm last night and played until 4am this morning. I am well out of the vault and doing some really cool side quests. I feel sorry for you guys that have it on the PS3, the 360 experience is glitch free so far.

The game definitely feels like a Fallout game. The dialogue is funny and I laughed out loud several times last night. The VATS system is pretty much how you have to control combat because otherwise you miss what you are aiming at…a lot. That is ok though because the VATS scenes kick ass.

As far as play mechanics on the 360 go, I am finding the whole experience to be good overall but I have some gripes with how hotkeys are assigned and jumping. The way you walk through the game definitely reminds you of Oblivion. I got a little sick of walking around debris that is laying everywhere.

Overall, the game rocks. The atmosphere is good, dialogue is better than I expected, weapons are fun and combat is sound, I love all of the exploring you get to do. This is definitely a true sequel in all ways to the original Fallout franchise that I have loved for ten years. Oh yeah, the lunch box and bobble head kick ass!

Golden Jew said on
October 29, 2008:

I hate all of you for making me buy new video games. That is all.

TrueTallus said on
October 29, 2008:

No glitches, Tyson? Sweet! My heart goes out to Christian, Spyder and all the others soldiering on despite the pain, though I’m glad to know, this time at least, that the 360 was the more stable pick:)

Only two days till Friday and my own apparently abundantly club sandwich filled lunchbox of the post-apocalypse…

SpyderMayhem said on
October 31, 2008:

The L2/R2 is a bug, and it comes and goes. I’ll literally play for an hour without them working, then the next hour they work great, then they leave again.

I ended up switching the r3 button with select, the Select button with L2 and the L2 with R3. I actually like having the R3 be VATS, so this change worked out great.

And the game is phenominal, bugs and all.

christian said on
October 31, 2008:

Spyder, I may have encountered the bug with VATS myself last night, though I’m not sure. I was dicking around with the controls at the time, not trying to get into combat. I think your remapping is a great idea though, good suggestion.

Tyson said on
November 2, 2008:

I will be hitting my 20th in game hour soon and all I have to say is that some of the side quests and random encounters kick ass. That is all.

So far I’ve been really impressed. I went in skeptical but it really did hook me. It runs a bit choppy at times, and it sounds like the PC release was pretty rough… but I’d expect console releases went better.

I will eventually man. I still have to beat Deathspank 2, Halo Reach . peprahs try to platinum Spidey, get COD and Fable III. It’s crazy out here man.Those Kinect games won’t help my chevo ratio. I thought these would be easy achievements games, but theyre not! Kinect Adventures looks a bit easier to get about 700 of the points, but Kinect Sports has some of the most difficult achievements yet. Dance Central, you need to be a god to get good scores in this one. Your Shape ain’t bad, but getting 10 000 calories burned would take about 100 days of playing while burning 100 calories. Burning 100 calories is what you burned by playing for around 30 minutes . depending on what you play. You can burn more faster, but fuck you’ll be tired. So they’re not hard chievios, you just have to keep playing the game for over 100 days. lol